Benjamin James

Hello I’m Granger Forson

www.bizsmart-gloucestershire.co.uk or find me on LinkedIn.

This time on ScaleUp Radio I speak with Benjamin Janes, the founder of The Trust Partnership.

 

The Trust Partnership is a business that manages charitable trusts, foundations and almshouse charities with its unique shared resources, helping them to be more effective and efficient. Some of these Almshouse charities go back to the 9th & 10 century. The Trust Partnership is not that old, it was started in 2005, but is does has a very long viewpoint of its future.

 

In his story about his business, Benjamin talks about a change point early on that allowed him to reflect on how to build a business based on his values.  This has allowed him to develop the business to serve the clients they have today.

 

As always, we cover a lot of ground, including:

 

 - a business that lives up to its values brings joy every day to all in it and all those it serves.

 - while we all have short term issues, it’s thinking about the really long term that allows you to make key strategic decisions.

 - Trust is key in everything you do.

 

What is so illuminating about this conversation with Benjamin is that the key to values is the behaviors you demonstrate every day.  Their defined values ‘don’t make you soft’ he says but allow the team to demand excellence and provide the best from themselves to their clients.

 

I know that you’ll get something out of this episode.

Find out more abou The Trust Partnership at: www.thetrustpartnership.com 

And Benjamin's authror reccomendations here:

https://douglasmurray.net/

https://www.tsowell.com/

And his podcast recommendations here:

https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcasts/

https://chriswillx.com/podcast/

https://www.joerogan.com/

 

Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.   If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: [email protected]   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brent explores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.    More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/ 

 

   Today on a ScaleUp Radio, we really do talk rubbish, literally, because today, my guest is Mikey Pasciuto, who is the co-founder of something called Scrapp. 

Scrapp is a platform for helping individuals but also corporations to improve their recycling. So essentially, they're on a mission to reduce global waste and it's a really clever business. Originally founded with 3 university colleagues but then very quickly, followed by another couple. They've since grown to 10. They've been through all sorts of different milestones, including initial seed funding and they're looking to raise some more seed investment now as well. 

So we have a discussion around the nuances of trying to raise money and some of the lessons that they've they've learned, as well as the fact that they've got extra challenges by never having all been in the same room together! The original 5 have have never actually been in the same room at the same time. They're based in two continents, some of them in the US and some of them in the UK. 

So really, challenge them on how do you manage the complexities of what is a very complex business potentially, anyway, and you'll hear about all of the different aspects of the data requirements to be able to tell us how to recycle a particular piece of waste. So really complex business from that aspect, but also then from the fact that they're in different parts of the world, time zones and everything like that. 

So lots of really interesting nuances and unique things about this discussion that perhaps we've not had on the standard ScaleUp Radio, if there is such a thing as a standard ScaleUp Radio interview. 

So I found this absolutely fascinating. I'm sure that you will too. So don't let me spoil it any more. Let's just go straight across and listen to the rest of Mikey’s story

Find Mikey here: [email protected] 

Or here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikey-pasciuto 

Have a look at Scrapp: www.scrapprecycling.com 

Also find his podcast ecommendation here:

https://www.corygated.com/sustainable-packaging-podcast

https://hubermanlab.com/category/podcast-episodes/

https://wondery.com/shows/how-i-built-this/

Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.   If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: [email protected]   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brent explores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.    More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/

 

Hello I’m Granger Forson

www.bizsmart-gloucestershire.co.uk or find me on LinkedIn.

This time on ScaleUp Radio I speak with Marksteen Adamson, the Founding Partner, Chief Creative Officer & Director of Strategy of Asha & Co.

 

Asha & Co is a Branding business based in Cheltenham. They are just celebrating 20 years in business and have weathered all the recessions thrown at them by sticking to the core values that set up the business.

 

Asha & Co focuses on helping Corporations and even Countries understand their truth / core identity. From there, they develop an agreed understanding of the challenges to be overcome and a key set of actions to take.

 

As always, we cover a lot of ground, including:

 

 - Understanding what your Business is not about, is as important as what it is about.

 - Branding is not just the logo you create, it’s about crafting your future reputation

 - Defining your business purpose and creating your manifesto is so important which is more than just mission, vision, and values if you want to make a difference.

 

What is wonderful about this conversation with Marksteen is how his approach to problem solving for his customers and the ethics that runs his business, has taken him to develop his social foundation to tackle big social issues he sees around him.

 

I know that you’ll get something out of this episode.

 

Marksteen can be found here:

linkedin.com/in/marksteen-adamson-92618410

https://ashaandco.uk/

[email protected]

[email protected]

https://phoenixvillageproject.org/

 

Resources

 

The 5 Love Languages by Gary D Chapman - https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-five-love-languages/gary-d-chapman/9781594153518

 

Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.   If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Granger here: [email protected]   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.    More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/

On this episode of ScaleUp Radio I interviewed Dr. Rajan Bedi, who is the CEO and founder of Space Chips, and they develop space electronics. So electronics, chips, devices, technology that goes up into space in satellites does all sorts of great things like Earth observation, for things like food sustainability, and even things like illegal fishing. 

And of course, there's all kinds of complications around designing things that have to go into space. And we talk about some of those as well as the business aspects of the journey that he has been on from starting about nine years ago after a 25 year experience in the space industry. 

 Then deciding to go out on his own and some of the lessons that he's learned along the way, the milestones including investing half a million pounds and setting up a lab in the in the UK.

It is a fascinating discussion and I think you are going to find it as equally fascinating as I did. So let's go across to Rajan for the rest of his story.

Dr Rajan can be found here:

linkedin.com/in/drrajanbedi

http://www.spacechips.co.uk/

 

Resources

Robin Sharma - https://www.robinsharma.com/

Dan Lok - https://danlokshow.com/

 

Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.   If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: [email protected]   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.    More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/

Hello I’m Granger Forson

www.bizsmart-gloucestershire.co.uk or find me on LinkedIn.

This time on ScaleUp Radio I speak with Eoin McQuone, the owner of Go Carbon Positive.

 

Go Carbon Positive is a business that helps SMEs to reduce their carbon impact by calculating and then reducing their carbon footprint. They are based in Gloucestershire and started in 2020 just before the pandemic. Since then, they have grown and now there are 4 members on the team.

 

Eoin takes us through why SME’s need to consider their carbon footprint, where all that carbon generation comes from and what the target of Net Zero is really all about.

 

As always, we cover a lot of ground, including:

 

 - Right from the start have a clear vision for the business long-term.

 - During start up, that is the time to test and create your procedures as you will soon be too busy to do this important task.

 - Being a thought leader on your web site will bring customers to you in time.

 

What is interesting about this conversation is that Eoin could see that SME businesses would need to play their part to reduce their impact on our climate, but there were so many barriers in their way. So, like so many great entrepreneurs he worked out a way to build a business to help them play their part in achieving the Net Zero goal.

 

I know that you’ll get something out of this episode.

 

Eoin can be found here:

linkedin.com/in/eoinmcquone

https://go-positive.co.uk/

0333 344 5890

 

 

Resources

 

How Bad Are Bananas by Mike Berners-Lee - https://www.waterstones.com/book/how-bad-are-bananas/mike-berners-lee/9781788163811

 

Cradle to Cradle by Michael Braungart - https://www.waterstones.com/book/cradle-to-cradle/michael-braungart/william-mcdonough/9780099535478

 

Microsoft Team app - https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-teams/download-app

 

Hello I’m Granger Forson

www.bizsmart-gloucestershire.co.uk or find me on LinkedIn.

This time on ScaleUp Radio I speak with David Holland, the owner of Exela.

 

Exela is a Marketing business that is based in Cheltenham. David started it 22 years ago and helps gritty entrepreneurs develop their marketing to bring in the leads for their sales process through using different tools.

 

What is interesting in David’s discussion about marketing is while Exela uses technology to aid their clients, the key is always in the skill of ‘driving interaction’, which is at the heart of all human connection since time began.

 

As always, we cover a lot of ground, including:

 

 - Marketing is an experiment to find what works.

 - You will need more than just one marketing stream.

 - Technology like AI is a tool to speed things up, but the hard work of thinking still needs to be done.

 

What I enjoyed so much about this conversation with David is how much marketing is nothing new, has always been going on and how people who think they can just ‘Buy’ a solution will never be successful. 

 

As a business owner while you can outsource the task of marketing, you must own it to be truly successful.

 

I know that you’ll get a lot out of this episode.

 

David can be found here:

linkedin.com/in/david-holland-uk

https://exela.co.uk/

[email protected]

 

 

Resources

 

Keap - https://keap.com/

 

The Sales Circuit by David Holland - https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-sales-circuit/david-holland/9781838190200

 

How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie - https://www.waterstones.com/book/how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people/dale-carnegie/9780091906818

 

Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink - https://www.waterstones.com/book/extreme-ownership/jocko-willink/9781250183866

 

E-Myth Master by Michael E Gerber - https://www.waterstones.com/book/e-myth-mastery/michael-e-gerber/9780060723231

 

Profit First by Michael Michalowicz - https://www.waterstones.com/book/profit-first/mike-michalowicz/9780735214149

 

Surge by Michael Michalowicz - https://mikemichalowicz.com/surge/

 

Dan Sullivan - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-gap-and-the-gain/id1579693186

 

Peter Diamandis podcast - https://www.diamandis.com/podcast

 

Google Suites - https://workspace.google.com/

 

Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.   If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Granger here: [email protected]   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.    More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/

 

How do you go from helping to keep our airspace safe to being the founder of an online community and sales platform for British-made crafts? 

Well, if you'd like to find out, then you need to listen to this interview with Susan Bonnar, who has set up and founded The British Craft House. 

There are lots of great takeaways and lessons within this conversation - from keeping true to your values and not letting your standards drop, even when you might be tempted to do so to the importance of building a social following and how that has really helped to build her online platform. 

This is a really good bottom up kind of interview from running away to join The Royal Navy at 17 to falling into business and how Susan started from very small, humble beginnings to now getting to the point where she has built a strong business that is scaling beautifully. 

Also what comes across so strongly in this conversation is that Susan has a really clear idea of where she wants to go. 

Susan emphasises the importance and power of her following – one of the things that separates business that scale from those that don’t, is finding a way to generate a predictable stream of on profile leads. 

This is part of our fundamental thinking in our ‘Execution Habits’ section of our InFlight Checks – you can benchmark yourself here https://executionhabits.scoreapp.com

 

Susan can be found here:

linkedin.com/in/susanbonnar

https://thebritishcrafthouse.co.uk/contact/

 

Resources:

Diary of a CEO - https://stevenbartlett.com/the-diary-of-a-ceo-podcast/

Happy Place Podcast - https://www.happyplaceofficial.co.uk/podcast/

Snapseed - https://snapseedofficial.com/

Adobe Express - https://www.adobe.com/express/

 

Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.   If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: [email protected]   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.    More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/

What a great young entrepreneur. Today I spoke with Kristian Cuffin, who founded something called Cuffed-In-Coffee.

Kristian has combined his love of coffee with the love of the outdoors and adventure and he's creating and building a lifestyle coffee brand and has got large ambitions.

He's hoping to become associated with coffee almost in the same way that Red Bull is associated with high energy drinks. So he's got big, big plans. It's been going for about four years and of course he had COVID in the middle of that, but you'll hear how he started off with a mobile trailer site and pretty much literally the wheels came off of his of his business. 

So he's had some real low points, but he's built himself up from there to now having a couple of stores and a unit where he roasts his own coffee. He's got eight employees and he's looking to franchise the business and expand across the UK and really build the brand. 

So lots of really great advice here but also a great story as to how Christian has fared so far in building his business. And of course, he's now getting into the point where he's got that challenge of managing his employees, finance rears its head as well. But also from a strategic point of view, he emphasises the importance of having a great business plan before you start. 

So rather than me spoil it further, let's go across to Kristian for the rest of his story. 

We will include a link in the show notes to all of resources he mentions, but also to a score app that we have which will help you to check your thinking on that planning on that business planning and your strategic thinking which might be useful to you https://strategicthinking.scoreapp.com

 

Kristian can be found here:

linkedin.com/in/kristian-cuffin-0360b6181

https://cuffedincoffee.com/

 

 

Resources

The Prince’s Trust - https://www.princes-trust.org.uk/

The E Myth by Michael E Gerber - https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-e-myth-enterprise/michael-e-gerber/9780061733826

Princples by Ray Dalio - https://www.waterstones.com/book/principles/ray-dalio/9781501124020

Setting The Table by Danny Meyer - https://www.waterstones.com/book/setting-the-table/danny-meyer/9780462099088

NCAS - https://www.ncasstraining.co.uk/

LivePlan - https://www.liveplan.com/

 

Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.   If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: [email protected]   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.    More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/

What a phenomenal Scaleup Club session we've just had. 

So this is a recording of one of our monthly themed Scaleup Club sessions. 

This time around, we look at the elevator pitch and the value proposition, how can you take your elevator pitch up a couple of floors is essentially what it's what it's all about. And we have some great guest speakers including:

 

Richard Hubble from it’seasy websites:

linkedin.com/in/richardhubble

Mark Williams from Limb Art:

linkedin.com/in/mark-limb-art

Peter Chatterley from Talent Hackers:

linkedin.com/in/thetalenthackers

 

We look at different aspects of the elevator pitch and we look at specifically how to craft your value proposition and the seven (or six, according to Richard Hubble!) key elements of that value proposition, but then how to pull it together into your elevator pitch. 

Mainly aimed at customers, but we also take a quick look at why an employee or employer value proposition is so important when we're looking to recruit prospective candidates. 

So, a really good session today with some great presentations, as well as a great panel discussion with a passionate group of business owners. Lots to take away in terms of how to really improve your value proposition. 

We almost always find that when clients have got difficulties with marketing and generating sufficient on profile leads, it comes down to not really having honed that value proposition in a way that is really meaningful for their clients and therefore when they come to communicate the messaging, it's not quite right, and they don't get the results from their marketing tactics that they would expect. 

So it's a really important aspect and let's go across and listen to all of the great advice.

 

Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.   If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: [email protected]   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.    More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/

Hello I’m Granger Forson

www.bizsmart-gloucestershire.co.uk or find me on LinkedIn.

This time on ScaleUp Radio I speak with Paul Holbrook, the owner of Diary Detox.

Diary Detox is a coaching business for Leaders based in Cirencester. Paul started the business 6 years ago, to bring his approach to helping managers to ‘Better Lead People’ to a wider audience. 

In this episode we discuss everything Leadership & Management in detail. 

We cover a lot of ground, including:

- You need to choose to be a Manager or Leader as it is such an important role

- The true role of manager is to make someone & something better

- Managers need to Think, Communicate & Improve

- Managers and Leaders need to create space in their diary for Green time

What is inspiring about this conversation with Paul is his approach to Leader development by starting with asking you to choose ‘is it time to lead’, then making space in your diary through the detox and focusing on the real essence of being a leader by leading with love. Yes Love, listen out for this amazing section in this conversation.

I know that you’ll get so much out of this episode.

 

Paul can be found here:

linkedin.com/in/paulmichaelholbrook

https://diarydetox.com/

[email protected]

 

Resources:

Atomic Habits by James Clear - https://www.waterstones.com/book/atomic-habits/james-clear/9781847941831

Good to Great by Jim Collins - https://www.waterstones.com/book/good-to-great/jim-collins/9780712676090

A Path Through The Jungle by Prof Steve Peters - https://www.waterstones.com/book/a-path-through-the-jungle/professor-steve-peters/9781998991105

My Therapist Ghosted Me podcast - https://www.mytherapistghostedme.com/

The Diary of a CEO - https://stevenbartlett.com/the-diary-of-a-ceo-podcast/

The Diary Detox - https://diarydetox.com/home

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/nhome/

Microsoft Outlook - https://outlook.live.com/

Training Peaks - https://app.trainingpeaks.com/

 

Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.   If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Granger here: [email protected]   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.    More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/